11 Sep 2013
A Montgomery man has begun serving a 30 year term in prison after pleading guilty to DWI, his ninth, or as many as his twelfth, depending upon which report you read. The plea came just as the trial in the case was set to begin. The trail of drunk driving convictions for Kevin Koch is difficult to follow, so difficult in fact that newspaper articles still don’t agree on the actual number of DWI’s he’s received.
In addition to the prior drunk driving convictions, Koch also had a prior record for harassment, theft, driving without a license, felony theft, and burglary. The trail was further complicated by the fact that Koch used at least one other identity, and his activities included offenses not only in Texas, but also in Florida and Tennessee.
We’ve all seen TV programs where an officer explains that a particular person has a rap sheet “as long as your arm.” Well, this is what one looks like. The references are to the dates of arrests or convictions:
- January 9, 1985 – Driving while intoxicated (Harris County, Texas). Sentenced to probation, which was revoked two years later.
- June 3, 1986 – Harassment (Montgomery County, Texas);
- January 29, 1987 – Theft (Brown County, Texas). Given probation, which was revoked three years later;
- December 2, 1987 – Driving without a license;
- April 8, 1988 – DWI (Harris County). Case dismissed;
- May 17, 1988 – DWI (Harris County). Second DWI conviction;
- January 5, 1990 – Theft (Harris County). Deferred Adjudication;
- December 29, 1990 – DWI (Harris County). Case dismissed;
- August 21 1991 – Felony theft (Harris County);
- February 18, 1993 – DWI and open container (Montgomery County). Third DWI conviction;
- August 3, 1994 – Burglary (Harris). Sentenced to probation, which was revoked as a result of DWI conviction number three.
We could go on and on, but you get the idea. By the time the current case was ready to go to trial, police officers from all over Texas, as well as others from Florida and Tennessee, were brought in and were eagerly prepared to testify against Koch.
The ability to sidestep past convictions was aided for a time by the lack of technology available to spot such tactics. Eventually, Koch’s use of an alias was revealed by fingerprint scanning recognition software, which identified him and his alias as the same person.
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